Carl investigates a series of brutal murders--someone is breaking mobsters' backs like twigs. All the signs point to Francois Edmonds, a young up-and-comer in the black numbers racket. The trouble is, Francois died a week before the first murder. Soon Carl realizes that someone has brought the young man back from the dead and he is murdering those who murdered him. No one likes a snoop, so soon enough Carl finds himself a target of this killer. The only way he can save his own life is to figure out how to kill a zombie for good.

A victim of Janos Skorzeny, the vampire that Kolchak dispatched in Las Vegas, has risen from a shallow grave and traveled to Los Angeles. Now she is posing as a prostitute and feeding on her clients, and Kolchak comes to town to investigate the killings.